Ignored once again: Under scorching sun, Adilabad's Bheemangondi voters to trek 6 km to reach polling station

Adilabad: Having set up as many as 52 auxiliary polling stations for the benefit of voters living in distant habitations, the election machinery in the Asifabad (ST) Assembly segment of the Adilabad (ST) Parliamentary constituency has certainly set a record of sorts.

The 74 Gond tribal voters, residents of the remotely located Bheemangondi in Lingapur mandal, however, are not impressed as they need to undergo tribulations in accessing their polling station.

Auxiliary polling stations have been carved out of the existing ones. The main aim of the Election Commission of India is to decrease the distance between habitations and respective polling stations. All habitations which have been subject to the exercise are now located within the desirable 2 km limit of the auxiliary polling station, except Bheemangondi.

The Asifabad Assembly segment has a total of 304 main polling stations, most of which are located in the hilly interiors of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. Over several elections in the past, the voters, chiefly Adivasis had undergone tremendous hardships to exercise their franchise as they needed to trek through difficult terrain.

"We need to walk all the 6 km to Chorpalli to vote," said Marskola Manabai, former sarpanch.

"It is a tiring journey over the hills," she pointed out towards a hillock her face getting slightly contorted just by thinking of the prospect of huffing and puffing to climb it.

Thanks to past experience, the voters have made a proper plan for the day of polling, May 13. "Given the harsh summer, we will start at day break with food and water as we will feel tremendously hungry on reaching Chorpalli," the former sarpanch revealed.

Bheemangondi is a 32-house hamlet surrounded by hillocks on all sides. The sight of the dryness of the vast landscape is breathtaking, seen from the viewpoint constructed atop the tallest hillock (estimated to be about 800 ft high) by the forest department.

For outsiders to reach Bheemangondi, they have to go to Chorpalli from Janioor mandal headquarters travelling on a 20 km motorable road. From there, they need to take the 6 km long rugged and treacherous dirt road winding through the now-denuded forest over the plethora of curves on two hillocks.

"This dirt road itself was laid a few years back by R.V. Karnan, then the Project Officer of Utnoor ITDA," recalled Athram Rajesh, a voter. "He had climbed down that steep hill to reach us," he added as he pointed towards the hillock to the west of the village.

The tribals of Bheemangondi have economic relations with Jainoor and attend the Thursday shandy without fail. "We either walk till Chorpalli and take an auto from there or pay out Rs. 100 for one side journey to Jainoor to any auto driver who risks coming to our village," pointed out Manabai.

The voters think that the primary school building can be used as an auxiliary polling station. "The government just needs to fix up the doors of the building and clean up the floor a bit," suggested a voter.